1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and more particularly to a manual air damper control for a refrigerator that converts rotary motion of a control knob into linear motion of an air damper to operate the damper in a limited space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known refrigerators typically include a freezer compartment separated from a refrigerator compartment by a partition wall. To cool the refrigerator compartment, cool air is directed from the freezer compartment into the refrigerator compartment through an air passageway disposed in the partition wall. A damper mounted with respect to the air passageway is typically employed to regulate the amount of air flow into the refrigerator compartment to control the temperature thereof. The damper may be automatically controlled by a temperature sensitive control unit as shown in U.S Pat. No. 3,375,679 and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,990. Alternatively, the damper may be manually controlled as shown in the following patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,981 shows a pivotal damper for a refrigerator, the damper position being manually controlled by a wheel cooperating with a pair of gears. U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,717 shows a damper slidably mounted with respect to a triangular opening of an air passageway to obtain a linear control of air flow into the refrigerator compartment as the damper is moved from its open position. U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,377 shows a pivotal damper for a refrigerator with a Bowden wire cable for translating linear movement of a manually actuated slider into pivotal movement of the damper. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,533 shows a manually controlled rotatable damper for a refrigerator. None of these manually controlled air dampers, however, provides a controlled linear air flow in a limited space in response to a rotatable control knob.